the fairy of the snow
by Yui Miyamoto
Summary: Hinata wants to enter a contest, but doesn't know what she should submit.


**Fanfom: the fairy of the snow.  
Title: Suki Dakara Suki  
Pairing: Asou + Hinata  
Rating: G  
Description: Hinata wants to enter a contest, but doesn****'****t know what she should submit.**

**Disclaimer: Suki Dakara Suki is by Clamp, but the ****"****children****'****s story****"**** of the snow fairy is mine.**

**the fairy of the snow.  
by miyamoto yui  
**

"Asou-sensei! Asou-sensei!"

She called to him from the living room, which was half of her "studio" now. The girl was smiling with her teeth showing as her eyes carried a certain twinkle of excitement and mischievousness. Her head was half-turned towards the man she was calling to as she held onto a pen in one hand while the other hand was flat on the drawing table, over the white, clean piece of paper in front of her. But she lifted her hand off the paper and brought it to her mouth with a giggle escaping from her lips.

The man with glasses, who was sitting in the dining room with a newspaper in his hands, cringed a bit, with his fingers twitching slightly in annoyance. Again, the girl called to him in her sweet and affectionate way. "Asou-sensei!"

He brought down his newspaper and looked over at her with her grin becoming wider. She knew he hated it when she called him that because they were not teacher and student any longer. But to her, he was her "teacher" in the sense that he was her companion and taught her many things that she wouldn't have learned without his love and affection towards her. And so, even though he disliked being called that, he dismissed it for the most part due to the girl's sincerity.

"Yes?" he asked as he watched her without blinking his eyes, unfazed by all her genkiness. Besides, that's what he loved most about her.  
"I have a deadline and I have no idea what to write." Her eyes turned towards the blank piece of paper and she frowned.  
He hated it when she did that. It got on his nerves.

"What's this contest for again?"  
Because he had worked on an assignment for the past several weeks, he hadn't seen her. And now, he was trying to catch up with what was going on. It was the usual routine, but it seemed that whenever she was near, he felt calmer about everything around him, which deeply contrasted with his usual appearance.

"It's a picture book contest," she answered while touching the paper with her finger, trying to make an image and looking for ideas to pop out at her.  
"Shouldn't you talk to you know who?" he tried to suggest nonchalantly while resuming to read the article that he was starting.

"I want to do this by myself." Her grip on her pen became a tad tighter and she concentrated with her eyebrows knit together. But it was of no use. She couldn't think of anything.

She sighed, but as she was doing all this, the man had dropped the newspaper a bit to look at her. The gentle light of the afternoon sun touched her softly and even though she was frustrated, he could only sense peacefulness from the scene.  
There was always something about her that he couldn't quite explain. She was charming, dense, and innocent. She cooked well and was very energetic, but pushing all that aside, there was something about her that made him gravitate towards her.

Once, she had told him that people said she was quite plain looking with her boyish haircut and the body of a little girl. And even though he was not one to comment on such things, he had touched her head and said, "People don't really appreciate the sun until they really look at it and its warmth."  
She didn't understand it, but he just smirked to himself as she pulled on his sleeve to tell her what he meant. As always, he shook his head and said that she'd learn with time.

Then, he put the newspaper on the dining room table and walked towards her. Without looking at her, he affectionately took her hand and opened the back door to go outside to the back yard. Still holding her hand, they went out to the middle of the yard and he said, "Look all around you."

The girl did and then she commented, "Reminds me of the first time we were both fixing our yards when you were my neighbor. Only, it was snow and not leaves."  
At this very memory, she grinned at laughed to herself. "I was so excited to see the snow, but then I was even more anxious to see that there was someone living next door."

As she squatted to the ground with her arm over her thighs, she picked up a leaf and looked at it. A small burst of intense warmth filled her heart as she said, "Until that day, I thought my dad bought the house next door so that no one would bother me."

She looked up to the man, who was looking down at her. He reached out his hand and touched the top of her head with his hand.

"He thought by doing that, then it'd be the best kind of protection. But it just made me so lonely. It's like keeping a beautiful doll in a glass case. It never really goes anywhere.  
"That's why I could never have my bears sit in one place forever and collect unwanted dust."

The expression on Asou-sensei's face became slightly softer as his lips revealed a small smile. While he looked deeply into her eyes, he questioned. "You know what I thought back then?"  
"What?"  
"I blinked at you because I thought I was probably dreaming. You looked like a fairy with all that snow trailing after you."

"A fairy? Really? Fairies are so pretty!" She began to blush, but as he was pulling his hand away from her, she shot up to her feet. With a fist in the air, she shouted enthusiastically, "That's it! I'll make it about a fairy!"

She jumped into his arms and hugged him. As he put her arms around her, she pulled on his jacket so that she could look at him eye-to-eye. She kissed his cheek and said, "Thank you!"

Then, she ran back into the house to start drawing.  
He stood outside for a while and pulled out a cigarette from his jacket pocket. He looked up to the sky and then at the leaves around him, spread out in no particular direction, shouting that autumn had come with all its melancholic brilliance.

When he was finished, he closed the sliding door behind him and found her earnestly working on her new project. As he was walking towards her, she put the cover over her sketch pad and sat there with a contented smile on her face. He came up to her and put his arms around her and she leaned back with her eyes closed. "Now, all the ideas are flowing."  
Then, she leaned forward again and opened the sketch pad to work on the picture book once more. He kissed the back of her head and then he let go of her. She continued to draw as he quietly left her so that he wouldn't disturb her.

For the next several days, even though they didn't really talk with him reading and her drawing, they were enjoying each other's company. Once in a while, she glanced at him and then laughed while turning back to work on her book again. He just shook his head.

When the book was done, they sat side by side on the dining table, and he looked at the cover of the book. It was a girl with glass covered wings looking at the audience with a smile on her face.

The girl then got up to serve him a fruit cake she had made. Feeding him on his first bite, he cleared his throat and ate quietly with a pleased look, always so impressed at how well she cooked everything she ever made. Then, she handed him the fork as she read from the pack of sketches held by a large black clip.

The stack was called "Fairy of the Snow".  
It was about a small girl who was trying to learn how to fly. She had wings, but she didn't know how to use them. People thought that these things happened instantly, but as with all things, everything took time and effort.

She tried all kinds of things. She would make little inventions, read books on how others did it, and other crazy ideas that popped in her head. She even hunched herself into a small ball and closed her eyes, waiting for something to happen.

But nothing did.

She tried and tried to get off the ground, but it still wasn't her time. But then, as she looked about her house, she sighed. How could she ever leave and travel if she didn't know how to fly?

Her dream was to go around to new places and try all kinds of food because she loved to eat and meet new people. That's why she tried so hard. But as the days passed, she started to become unconfident even though she always held a smile on her face.

She wanted to get out. She didn't want to be alone anymore.

And then, one day, she cried as she ran with the snow falling quietly to the ground. Somehow, the wind carried her, but not too far.

She fell over a large lump of snow, and looked up to see a boy who had set up camp. She couldn't even imagine anyone but herself surviving there. She thought she was alone for all these years. The "neighbor", who was a teenage boy, looked at her in awe. He couldn't believe his eyes.

He had been ridiculed and laughed at for being such a fool, looking for a snow fairy thought to live up high in the mountains. With this dream, he came from a faraway place just to see her. To see how beautiful she was thought to be.

They spent many days together talking, but then, the boy had to leave. He couldn't stay with her and the fairy became extremely sad.

Then, at the time they were about to part, she cried as she shook her head. She wanted to go with him to see the rest of the world.  
At that moment, the snow stopped falling and her wings became thinner and thinner. She looked around in shock and closed her eyes from the pain.

The wings were giving away sparkles, crystals, and pieces of snow as it became no more. And then she walked side by side with the boy, looking forward to enjoying the rest of the world with him.

The man looked at the sketches and at the text itself. Hina leaned her head on his arm as she pointed at the last sentence. "I want you to read that."  
He then said, "The world can never be experienced alone. That's what they both learned while up on that white-covered mountain. There were other colors to live with. And there were even more to discover."

He glanced at Hina, who had closed her eyes because she had fallen asleep. Putting his arm around her and pulling her closely to his side, silently, he continued to gaze at her tenderly.

Yes, even though he didn't deserve it and with all the rain of past memories within his heart, she had given him something that he never thought he could have.

She gave him unconditional love and peace. That was the strength of her charm.

The power of the sun that had melted the snow within him.  
**  
Owari. / The End.**

**Author****'****s note:** I believe that I am in one of the worst bouts of writer's block periods that I've ever had. I'm sure this fic shows that struggle, and yet, I wanted to write a fic for my 3rd favorite Clamp title. (After all, I only read Gouhou drug 'cause Asou-sensei was in it. ^^;;;)  
I thought long and hard for a whole hour about this just sitting in my chair and looking at my blank document. ;_; And then, it hit me. It's possible for Hina to become a picture book author, right?  
Yeah, that's it!

**July 10. 2004**


End file.
